Promotional material such as sample music tracks and movie previews are often distributed to consumers free in newspapers, magazines and in shops for example. These methods of promotion are expensive and in some circumstances ineffective as potential customers could forget the association between a sample music track or video clip of a movie and the actual CD or DVD for example.
In some stores there exists the provision of so-called ‘listening stations’. These generally operate by allowing potential customers to sample music clips of selected products that the store offers. A disadvantage of these ‘stations’ is that there can be long queues to use them, and generally not all of the entertainment media in the store will be available for preview using the station due to limited storage capacity, and the costs associated with making such media available at a station. Other disadvantages exist, such as the floor space which such stations use for example. Stations adapted for previewing video media are currently very limited, but similar disadvantages exist.